The 'Avengers: Endgame' Directors Had A Good Reason For Bringing T'Challa Back First

With Avengers: Endgame heading to Blu-ray and DVD, Marvel has begun an out and out blitz of marketing to push sales. Referred to as the "We Love You 3000 Tour," directors Joe and Anthony Russo have embarked on a nine-city tour starting with San Diego Comic-Con and ending in Anaheim at D23. In between they are stopping in major cities for fan events and meet and greets while doing radio shows and internet interviews. The latest, a Reddit AMA, revealed an interesting tidbit: why Black Panther was the first Avenger to return after the Snappening was undone.

Some are complaining the Russos are going overboard. Comparisons to J.K. Rowling over-explaining Harry Potter once the books and movies were done have come up. And, to be fair, there are some aspects of Avengers: Endgame that are better left unexplained. For instance, the time-travel weirdness, which does not hold to any working theory of how this science fiction staple functions, is better the less anyone thinks about it.

But when it comes to other things, like the first moments after the snap was undone (or the blip ended, if you'd rather), everything holds together very well. And the Russo's discussion of how that came together is fascinating.

When Hulk snaps his fingers, undoing Thanos' Snappening, there's a pause because no one is exactly sure if it worked. And then, Sam Wilson, aka Falcon, one of those who was dusted in the snap, comes on the radio: "Hey Cap, do you read me?"

Then a portal, like the one Doctor Strange makes, opens up. On the other side of the gateway, there's Wakanda, far from the darkened battlefield, where the sun shines brightly. And through that portal walk three figures: T'Challa, Okoye, and Shuri.

They are quickly followed by Sam flying in, and then Strange, the Guardians, etc. But why that order exactly?

When asked on Reddit about this choice, Joe Russo explained it this way:

We spent a lot of time in the edit room playing around with the sequencing of the portals. We probably didn’t lock that section of the movie until about a month before the film was in theaters. We always wanted Sam to be the first one to communicate with Cap via his comm and Sam was last in Wakanda, so logically the first portal that would open would the Wakandan portal. And the first person that would logically walk through a portal from Wakanda would be the king himself, bringing his army once again to the defense of Cap and the world.

One other interesting note from the AMA is when the Russos were asked about the Disney-Fox merger, which closed in March of 2019, about six weeks before Endgame's release. When asked if the Disney-Fox deal had gone through earlier, how many heroes would you have wanted to incorporate into Endgame, the Russo responded they are a glutton for punishment. "Double the amount," they agreed.

I guess having a movie with nearly 30 leading characters isn't insane enough. Next time, if Marvel lets there be a next time, they might just go for 60.